by Ian Shires on November 18, 2014

Monday’s full council meeting in Walsall Council Chamber saw Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Ian Shires take issue with Walsall’s new Labour Leader over his support for a Greater Birmingham “Combined Authority” which was contained in his briefing to Council.

Ian asked the following question of the Labour Leader of the Council:

“The new powers being given to Greater Manchester depends on there being a directly elected Mayor as your report says. My question to you is would you be happy to accept on behalf of the people of Walsall an arrangement similar to that of Greater Manchester?

or

Would you prefer to see, on behalf of the people of Walsall an arrangement where any “Combined Authority” for Greater Birmingham would consist of the Leaders of Birmingham and the Black Country Councils which in turn would result in a “Combined Authority” which is neither elected nor accountable to the people of Walsall.”

The Labour Leader of Walsall Council waffled on a bit about the “Combined Authority” being the “only kid on the block” so we should take what we can when we can in order to promote jobs and regeneration.

Quiet frankly this didn’t exactly fill us with confidence particularly as there were references to the former West Midlands County Council. A body which didn’t exactly cover itself in glory as it took powers away from local councils and did nothing to devolve power from Westminster or reduce the number of MPs sitting there. Either way Walsall and its District Centres were being micro managed from afar!

Commenting after the meeting Ian said:

“As local Liberal Democrats here in Walsall we have our views about how power should be wrested from Westminster. I suspect that we are at variance, not for the first time, with our Party both nationally and regionally, who like the other two main Parties, the Tories and Labour, seem to favour some kind of creeping devolution which to our mind can only lead to a further fracturing of the link between politicians and the people they are supposed to represent.

If democracy as we know it is to survive. If we are to restore the electorates faith in those who purport to represent them. We need to restore the link between where you put a cross on the ballot paper and the kind of Governance we expect. To do this then we need to begin the process of bringing decision making back closer to the people, closure to those it directly effects.

To achieve this we need to start wresting power from the top with the formation of a body designed to unite us as a nation by forming a Federal United Kingdom made up of the nations and English Regions which go to make this island state of ours.

The direct effect of this would be to see a major reduction of MPs at Westminster along with a corresponding shift of support jobs out to the newly formed Regional Assemblies of England, This in turn would help spread the wealth which currently is concentrated around the Westminster Bubble around the UK.

Closer to home, right here in Walsall, we should be setting about shifting power away from Walsall Council House by giving back to Districts Centres like Willenhall, Darlaston, Aldridge, Brownhills, and Bloxwich some of the power they had before they were swallowed up by Walsall MBC.

This isn’t pie in the sky. This concept will be reflected in our budget proposals as we move forward into the big budget debate in the new year.